View source for François-Xavier-Marc-Antoine de Montesquiou-Fézensac

{{Short description|French clergyman and politician}}
[[File:François Xavier Marc Antoine de Montesquiou-Fezensac.jpg|thumb|François-Xavier-Marc-Antoine de Montesquiou-Fézensac]]
Abbé '''François-Xavier-Marc-Antoine de Montesquiou-Fézensac''' (château de [[Marsan]], [[Gers]], 3 August 1757 – [[Chateau de Cirey]], [[Haute-Marne]], 4 February 1832) was a French clergyman and politician.
== Biography==
He was a member of a very old French nobility family from Gascony. His kinsman [[Anne-Pierre, marquis de Montesquiou-Fézensac]] would serve alongside him in the [[National Assembly (French Revolution)|National Assembly]].
Montesquiou-Fézensac was named (1782) Abbé of Beaulieu, near [[Langres]]. The Abbé de Montesquieu attended the [[Assembly of the French clergy]] (1785) as Agent-General.
==French Revolution==
The Abbé was elected by the [[Estates General (France)|First Estate]] of [[Paris]] to the [[Estates General of 1789]]. He would stand out alongside the [[Abbé Maury]] by his oratory, and was elected president of the [[National Assembly (French Revolution)|National Assembly]] three times. He presided over the Assembly an impressive three terms (4–18 January 1790; 28 February - 15 March 1790; 14–30 March 1791).
He opposed strongly the [[Civil Constitution of the Clergy]] and supported the [[French Monarchy|monarchy]]. He was forced to flee to England after the [[10 August (French Revolution)|Storming of the Tuileries]] (10 August 1792).  He lived in the [[United States]] 1792-1795 during the [[Reign of Terror]].
==Restoration==
He returned to France after [[9 Thermidor]] (27 July 1794) and immediately took up the royalist cause as one of the agents of [[Louis XVIII]]. He became a member of the Royalist Committee in Paris, and for his activism he was once exiled to [[Menton]].
Under the [[First Restoration]] he was appointed [[Minister of the Interior (France)|Minister of the Interior]] ( 13 May 1814 - 19 March 1815 ). In his brief term he appointed [[Pierre-Paul Royer-Collard]] and director of the library [[François Guizot]] secretary general.
The [[Second Restoration]], he had the title of [[Minister of State#Ancien Régime France|Minister of State]]. Elected deputy by the department of [[Gers]], he opted for the [[Chamber of Peers (France)|Chamber of Peers]] with the title of Count (as of 31 August 1817) and Duke (as of 30 April 1821). He resigned his peerage 9 January 1832, shortly before his death.
He was appointed member of the [[Académie française]] by royal decree of 21 March 1816 . He was also elected member of the [[Academy of Inscriptions|Academy of Inscriptions and Belles-Lettres]] on 12 August 1816.
He left manuscripts on the history of Louis XV and Louis XVI and a travel journal for the U.S. and Canada but did nothing to have them published.
== External links ==
* William L. Clements Library, The University of Michigan, [http://www.clements.umich.edu/Webguides/A/ATMontes.html Article on the journal of the abbé de Montesquiou's North American trip] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070629225537/http://www.clements.umich.edu/Webguides/A/ATMontes.html |date=2007-06-29 }}
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20081204133013/http://www.archontology.org/nations/france/france_state1/montesquiou1.php Article on the abbé de Montesquiou]
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{{Succession box
| before = [[Jacques Claude Beugnot]]
| title   = [[List of Interior Ministers of France|Interior Minister]]
| after = [[Lazare Nicolas Marguerite Carnot]]
| years=1814–1815
}}
{{end}}
{{Académie française Seat 15}}
{{French provisional government of 1814}}
{{Government of the first Bourbon restoration}}
{{Authority control}}
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[[Category:1757 births]]
[[Category:1832 deaths]]
[[Category:Montesquiou family|Francois]]
[[Category:Dukes of France]]
[[Category:French abbots]]
[[Category:Legitimists]]
[[Category:French interior ministers]]
[[Category:Members of the National Constituent Assembly (France)]]
[[Category:Members of the 1st Chamber of Deputies of the Bourbon Restoration]]
[[Category:Members of Parliament for Gers]]
[[Category:Members of the Chamber of Peers of the Bourbon Restoration]]
[[Category:19th-century French historians]]
[[Category:Members of the Académie Française]]
[[Category:Order of the Holy Spirit]]